Easy New Year Resolutions - Own the Basics!

Published on January 5, 2015

If you really want to get healthier in 2015 and beyond, then the real truth is you don’t need a fancy diet or expensive and nearly impossible to follow detox program, it’s likely that you need to just simply do more of the basic things that are good for your health.

So this article is going to be short, simple, and to the point. As good health does take good effort and attention, but it doesn’t have to be complex.

Step 1: Get under regular chiropractic care, with weekly check ups at minimum.

Yeah, I started here. It’s really simple folks… we live in a more stressful, busy, toxic world and our bodies and nervous systems undergo a lot of stress.

Regular chiropractic care optimizes your body’s ability to function, and keeps your nervous system humming along at a high level… and those are both pretty darn handy things when it comes to being healthy, and staying that way for a long time.

Patients under regular chiropractic care tend to get sick less often, and get over it a lot quicker when they do. Plus they regularly report improved energy levels and mood, more flexibility, and a better ability to adapt to stress. We think those are good things, and you should too.

Step 2: Stay hydrated..

You run on water, about 70% of your body in fact is made of the stuff. In contrast, cars run on oil and gasoline for it’s major functions. How does your car run when it’s out of oil or gas? What if you put Diet Coke into your gas tank, or a decaf sugar free soy latte into your car’s engine? Yeah, not good.

Drink water, a lot of it… and never stop. And don’t forget your kids! Ditch the juice and get them downing water non stop too!

Step 3: Get fit.

In our opinion, without a doubt this one trumps nutrition (which is next coincidentally) for many reasons. Staying active and being fit really changes the style and sort of food you crave, and helps you eat healthier. Your body is hard-wired for movement, and your brain and nervous system’s “batteries get charged” when you do. In contrast, if you sit around and live a sedentary life, you’ll have low energy and crave sugar, caffeine, etc. That simple.

Regular exercise also is an amazing “detox agent” designed to rid your body of built up toxins and junk that accumulates way too often thanks to the chemically-induced world we live in. If you don’t exercise regularly, not only does fat accumulate, but so do those toxins. That’s one of the many reasons regular exercise is shown to be the absolute best treatment and prevention strategy for everything from back pain to heart disease, cancer to depression, and so much more.

You can go the easiest and flat out free way and that’s get out and walk and jog, but that gets a little tricky right now since I’m writing this article with snow and ice on the ground outside. You can go the cheaper gym route like Anytime Fitness and such, but you’ll be reliant on yourself to come up with workouts and regimens.

Or you can take it to the top level and get involved with what we feel is the most incredible form of exercise out there, CrossFit. CrossFit sometimes gets a bad rep for being “crazy” and too much and too hard. It’s none of those things, and the folks who say that about it likely have no experience with it.

Truth is, if you walk into any CrossFit class across the country you’ll see anyone and everyone from 23 year old studs to 53 year old “regular folks” who love staying fit and healthy to people looking to start being fit and healthy. It’s meant to be scaled and adapted to each individual person, that’s the beauty of it!

If you’re local to Crystal Lake, we love CrossFit AMRAP. Check them out!

Step 4: Eat clean.

Notice I didn’t say eat “better” or “Paleo” or anything like that. I could, and I easily should. But you’ve also heard that a million times and it likely hasn’t worked a million times.

So yes, I could write a 44 page article easy teaching you why the Paleo diet is by far the best and is what you should strive for. But truth is if you were to decide to pick up the guitar this year and start playing, you shouldn’t expect to be Slash from Guns and Roses by the end of Day 1. It takes time and repetition to get better.

So we’ve found by far the most effective, health-enhancing starting point for our patients in this toxic, chemical-laced, GMO-lovin American diet is to just flat clean it up! If you can’t pronounce it, don’t eat it. If its list of ingredients goes beyond more than a few things, don’t eat it. If it can sit on the shelf for 4 years and still be “edible” then it’s not really edible.

Step 5: Take some supplements.

Your diet is not going to be perfect, and truth is even if it was because our environment is now so toxic and polluted as well some things we just can’t get at high enough and clean (pure) enough levels. Those main things are omega 3 fatty acids, probiotics, and Vitamin D in the winter.

So for supplements we stick to the same theme – own the basics. Every one from kids to grandpas should take these every single day:

Whole food multivitamin (if it’s synthetic, it’s worthless)

Clean, pure fish oil (omegas)

Probiotics

Vitamin D (especially in winter months)

Step 6: Chill out, don’t worry, be happy.

Sounds like a reggae or “hippie” song right? Well, they may be onto something! By far the #1 destroyer of good health these days is not gluten (although it’s no good), it’s stress… or more accurately defined – distress.

Not all stress is bad, and in fact overcoming regular stress helps make us more resilient and strong (just like regular exercise improves muscle strength and cardiovascular fitness). Having a “busy” and challenging job and schedule is not all that bad, unless our reaction to it is bad.

If you constantly complain about how busy you are, constantly moan and groan, and constantly feel worn out and tired… well then you are. Sure it’d be nice to throw away all of that stress and just head to a beach in Mexico, but it’s not reality.

So how do you get as close to that feeling as possible, and keep it that way? Put Steps 1-5 above in action, and keep them in action every day for good!

Truth is you’ll often find the happiest, least stressed individuals you know likely have more responsibilities than you do, more kids than you do, a “busier” schedule than you do… But, how they react to it and take it on may be dramatically different that you do! And THAT is the key.

Just like your diet, cut out the “toxicity” and clean it up. If your workplace is toxic, change jobs… if your friends are toxic, change friends… If your schedule is toxic, change it.

It won’t take long and you’ll be experiencing good health and the good life that comes with it! So in case you missed it, here’s how easy it is… Get adjusted, drink lots of water, move often, eat clean, and be happy. 3, 2, 1…. GO!